Chain stopper devices can provide an attachment or connection of a chain to, for example, a vessel, which may be moored to a seabed. By adjustment of a chain length or tension of a chain connected to the vessel or a position of the vessel can be altered or controlled.
Adjusting and/or pulling of the chain can lead to fatigue and wear of the chain due to chafing and out of plane bending at the attachment or connection region of the chain to the vessel. For example, upward pulling-in of the chain may cause the chain having to manoeuver or bend around small or tight corners with small radii as in U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,436 (SOFEC). This may cause fatigue and wear of the chain and compromise the lifetime of a chain by years.
Guiding of a chain around small corners may also limit the loads, tension or pre-tension, which may be applied to the chain during installation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,436 (SOFEC) discloses a chain support, hinged on two perpendicular axes which allows chain movement in two perpendicular planes. The chain support allows chain to be pulled through the centre of the apparatus to a desired length after which the chain is removable secured to the chain support.
A self-weight of a chain and/or tensioning or pulling of a chain may cause loads in an axial direction, e.g. in a direction along a longitudinal axis, of a vessel. This may results in large and heavy chain stoppers, which may be difficult to fabricate. Also the fabrication of large and heavy chain stopper can be very costly and time intensive.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to seek to obviate or at least mitigate one or more of the aforementioned problems in the prior art.
It is a further object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to seek to obviate or at least mitigate one or more problems in the prior art.